


Beside you

by taztaas (ainonoai)



Series: Hogwarts AU [6]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Hurt/Comfort, Knight Bus, Late Night Baking, Loud friends, M/M, Running away from home, Sleepovers, shitty parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 06:59:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12765618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ainonoai/pseuds/taztaas
Summary: Kravitz gets kicked out of his house right after Christmas and gets on the Knight Bus.





	Beside you

 

> _“You should visit us sometime over the holidays to hang out, you’d meet Magnus! He’s a real brick shithouse and he’s like my best fri-” Taako cuts himself off quickly, “Anyway! He likes music too and he’s funny as hell I think you’d like him and-” Taako blabbered excitedly, his mouth running faster than his brain and hands gesturing wildly._
> 
> _“Yeah, that would be nice.” Kravitz answered, faking a smile but luckily Taako was too busy talking to notice. Kravitz knew his parents would never let him._

 

Kravitz stepped out of the purple Knight Bus, which took off with a loud bang immediately after. Too tired to be startled by the noise, he adjusted his grip on his shoulder bag and looked around. The neighborhood looked very normal, very _muggle-y,_ which was a bit surprising, but this was Taako’s address, he was sure of it. He walked closer to the row of identical-looking houses and went through the gate with Taako’s house number on it. The building looked no different to its neighbors, nothing suggested that there were magical people living in it. He walked up the path to the door and knocked lightly, as it was almost midnight. The lights were on in the first floor of the house but he didn’t want to be too loud in case someone was sleeping.

 

Taako was doing some late night baking, he had hardly had his fill of Christmas cookies - even though he had been eating them through the whole month, and during Christmas itself - so he had a batch in the oven, almost done. It was very late but whatever, he was on vacation, nowhere to be, just chilling, able to sleep in late if he needed to. Magnus had come over today and they had spent the day just having fun and wasting time until Lup suggested a marathon viewing of old Quidditch matches and Taako had impolitely ducked out. The sounds from Lup’s room had quieted about an hour ago so Taako supposed that the two sports nerds had fallen asleep. Their aunt wasn’t home either, called away for an emergency divination even though it was just a few days past Christmas, so Taako basically had the house and more specifically the kitchen for himself tonight and he was taking full advantage.

 

The cookies were done. He turned off the oven and he had just finished in moving the cookies to a cooling rack when he heard a knock on the door. A bit puzzled but not really thinking through how unusual it was to have someone knocking at your door at almost midnight, he went to open the door and behind it stood -

 

“Kravitz?!”

It was Taako’s _fucking_ boyfriend, standing on his doorstep with a bag hanging off his shoulder, wearing a black hoodie with the Weird Sisters logo on the front - Taako briefly felt giddy, he fucking _knew_ that Kravitz liked that band, he’s so stereotypically goth - and despite the fact that Kravitz looked dead tired and probably didn’t spare any thought to Taako’s look, Taako wished he was wearing something better than his home clothes, now that he was meeting his boyfriend outside the school, without the _damn robes_ for the first time. Taako had never been one to feel self-conscious but his bun was a half-exploded mess of hair on top of his head, he was wearing the garish, yellow Camp Goodfriend T-shirt he stole from Magnus and his _least_ flattering gray sweatpants. He was a mess, but frankly, Kravitz didn’t look much better.

 

Kravitz shuffled his feet awkwardly and cleared his throat.

“Uh, hey Taako. My-” He swallowed, looking at his feet. “My parents kicked me out, I couldn’t think of any other place to go…”

“What the fuck,” Taako hissed, appalled, before composing himself, “I mean, of course you can stay here! Get in, get in, you must be freezing, why aren’t you wearing a coat?” He grabbed Kravitz by the arm and roughly pulled him into the foyer and closed the door. Kravitz rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, still not looking at Taako.

“Uh, um, I kind of left in a hurry…” Worry flickered into Taako’s face and he didn’t even bother concealing it. He grabbed Kravitz’s hand and squeezed it gently.

“Uhhh, okay. Do you need anything? Food? Something to drink? Shower?”

Kravitz shook his head but finally met Taako’s gaze. His eyes were red-rimmed. “I just- I’m just really tired if I could just crash on your couch or something...”

“Nuh-huh, no way. You’re sleeping in my room, come on.” Taako started towards the staircase, pulling Kravitz behind him by the hand he was still holding. Kravitz was too tired to pay much attention to his surroundings but walking up the stairs behind Taako he took note of several photos on the wall, all of them moving just like magical paintings did. Most of the photos featured the twins, unsurprisingly, and in some, there was another boy which Kravitz figured must be Magnus. Some photos had the twins with their aunt, a small, friendly looking woman. Kravitz supposed she must’ve taken most of the photos so she didn’t appear much. They reached the upstairs landing, and as they passed by the first door, Kravitz saw it was pretty much fully plastered in Quidditch posters and team flags. Lup’s room, obviously. Next was Taako’s room and it was an absolute disaster zone. The floor was littered with clothing, shoes, hats, books and other miscellaneous knick-knacks. All the furniture was also covered by stuff. There were more books scattered around the room than in the actual bookshelf, and more clothes on the floor than in Taako’s closet or dresser, Kravitz guessed. Kravitz knew he shouldn’t be surprised, Taako was pretty unorganized but the state of the room was kind of unbelievable. Taako turned to grin at him, sheepish.

 

“Just wait a sec.” He stepped into his room, following some kind of path to avoid stepping on anything breakable or sharp. Kravitz watched, eyes wide as Taako just pushed his things under his bed or threw them towards his open closet to clear some space on the floor. When the floor had a decently sized clear space on it, Taako pushed past Kravitz back into the hall and rummaged in a nearby cupboard, extracting a spare mattress. He walked back over, roughly threw the mattress into his room and went back to the cupboard taking some sheets and bedding out. He pushed them into Kravitz’s arms.

“Here. I’d love to share the bed but it’s kinda narrow and I sleep like a starfish.” Taako said with a grin and Kravitz nodded slowly. “Bathroom’s at the end of the hall, do you need pajamas or anything?”

“No, I got most of what I need in my bag, it’s got an extension charm on it so it can hold a lot of stuff,” Kravitz answered, inclining his head towards his bag. Taako gave a whistle, impressed. “That’s hella cool my dude. I’m gonna go downstairs to clean up and stuff, be right back. You can make your bed and… get changed or whatever.” Taako took off with a small wave and Kravitz watched him disappear down the stairs. He looked at the bundle in his arms and frowned.

 

Taako returned to find Kravitz sitting on the bare mattress, wearing pajamas, grey flannel pants and a black T-shirt with yet another band-logo on it that Taako didn’t recognize this time. He quirked his eyebrow at Kravitz, wordlessly questioning. It was Kravitz’s turn to grin sheepishly.

“Um, I don’t really know how to put sheets on, we have a house-elf at my house…”

“Rich boy!” Taako laughed, “Here, I’ll show you how ‘cos I’m just that nice.” He kneeled next to Kravitz and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before pushing him off, grabbing the sheet and spreading it over the mattress.

 

Eventually, they had Kravitz’s bed made. Taako jumped onto his own bed and reached to turn off the light on his bedside table as Kravitz got himself situated under the covers. The room went dark, and Kravitz closed his eyes. He was so damn tired, but now he felt too exhausted to fall asleep. He turned to his side and opened his eyes to look at Taako. Luckily it was too dark to see anything, Kravitz didn’t want to see the look on Taako’s face right now. Silence hung heavily on them for a few moments.

“Hey. Do you… Want to talk about it?” Taako whispered and Kravitz closed his eyes again, hoping to block everything out.

“No, not right now. Tomorrow, maybe.” He heard Taako shuffle his sheets.

“‘kay. Night, Krav.”

“Goodnight Taako.”

 

Kravitz had no means to measure time in the darkness but it felt like he had laid awake for hours. It was still dark so at least it wasn’t morning yet. Sleep just refused to come. He tried to listen for Taako’s breathing, to figure out if he was asleep, but couldn’t. He decided to take a chance and whispered into the darkness.

“Taako?”

“Mmyeah…?”

 

Taako was awake but Kravitz found himself at a loss for words. He felt choked up, vulnerable, and his words got stuck in his throat. He breathed hard through his nose, he wasn’t going to cry. It wasn’t worth it. He heard Taako move and seconds later felt the mattress dip with added weight. He could barely make out Taako’s shape in the darkness, hovering beside him. “This okay?” Taako asked.

Kravitz forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. “Yes.”

“Scoot.”

Kravitz moved to the edge of the mattress, making space for Taako who settled next to him with his own pillow and blanket. Taako hummed.

“A tight fit but at least we won't fall off.” Kravitz wanted to laugh at that but only managed a small huff. Taako turned to his side, facing Kravitz.

“Gimme your hand babe, can’t see shit.”

Kravitz reached out for him in the darkness and Taako’s hand found his. Kravitz gripped the hand tightly, he felt his nails pressing into the other’s skin but Taako didn’t pull away.

“You okay?” Taako whispered and Kravitz took a deep breath before answering.

“No… not really no.”

“Okay.”

 

They were still for a minute but then Kravitz felt Taako pulling at his hand and he obeyed, moving closer. He pressed his forehead to Taako’s shoulder, to the soft fabric of his shirt. Taako moved his other hand to Kravitz’s hair, carding through it gently before settling at the back of his neck. Kravitz let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and wrapped his free arm around Taako’s waist. He felt the other’s breathing and made his own follow the same rhythm. Taako relaxed next to him and Kravitz finally felt himself starting to doze as they breathed in sync.

 

After what felt like just a few minutes but must’ve been hours, Kravitz was startled awake by loud banging. “TAAKO! It’s morning, I want breakfast!”

Kravitz blinked in the brightness of Taako’s room and rubbed his eyes. Someone was trying to break the door in, it seemed. He glanced at Taako, laying next to him, who was determinedly squeezing his eyes shut, apparently trying to force himself to fall back to sleep.

“TAAKO!” Came the shout again, accompanied by more loud knocks on the door. Taako groaned into his pillow, before turning to address the closed door, pushing his sleep-tousled hair out of his face. “Too early Mags, ask Lup.”

“I already did and she threatened me in her sleep!”

“Well ‘m not getting up. Go eat some bread or something.” Taako mumbled, stuffing his face back into his pillow. A loud huff came from the other side of the door.

“Fine! I’m gonna go home to eat. But I’ll be back for lunch and it better be good!”

“Yeah yeah.” Came from depths of the pillow.

Kravitz heard what must’ve been Magnus, stomp down the stairs and loudly slam the door behind him as he left the house. Beside him, Taako was cussing Magnus out and pulling his blanket over his head to hide from the morning light. Kravitz grinned, amused by the sight.

“You cook?” He asked, and Taako lowered his blanket just enough to reveal his eyes and glare at Kravitz. “Yeah, but not for a few more hours. Get back down here and sleep some more, goth-boy.” He said, grabbing Kravitz’s pillow and throwing it at his head. Kravitz, feeling emotionally better and wide awake now, dodged it easily and grabbed at Taako’s covers, pulling them down to force the other boy into the light. Taako quickly covered his face and squirmed, “It burnss usss!” he hissed dramatically, making Kravitz laugh. Taako glared at him heatedly from between his fingers, and he was just about to rip Kravitz a new one, probably, when they heard Lup’s loud voice from the next room. “TAAKO IS THAT KRAVITZ?!”

Taako grabbed his pillow and screamed into it. Kravitz just laughed again.


End file.
